Saturday Come Slow was initially the brainchild of Daddy G working separately on his own from 3D. The track was conceived in early 2006 between himself and members of a Bristol music production team known as The Robot Club (Stew Jackson and Dan Brown), who would also work on the Helgioland track, Paradise Circus. A demo of Saturday Come Slow was sent to Blur's Damon Albarn in March 2006 and he would compose his lyrics to the song within an hour of first listening to it.

The track was shelved for almost another 3 years until Damon Albarn came to work with Massive Attack for a period of 2 weeks in early 2009 in his London studio to put the finishing touches on this song while also simultanouely helping them compose the track Splitting The Atom.

An interview with Massive Attack in the Sunday Times newspaper in March 2006 contained the first mention of the track's name and Damon Albarn as its intended vocalist, even though it would be almost another 4 years until the completed track was finally heard on the Heligoland album.

Additional Info

Adrian Utley of the Bristol band, Portishead, played additional guitar on the Saturday Come Slow track.

Adrian Utley, the chief guitarist in fellow Bristol band, Portishead, contributed to Saturday Come Slow as a session guitarist on the track.

Live Appearances

Saturday Come Slow has only been played live on two occasions both of which were in London. The first time was on the 17th September 2009 at the Brixton Academy, London. The second time was on the 11th February 2010 at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. On both times, the song was the second last song played and Damon Albarn joined the band on stage to perform the song. Damon Albarn had once performed live on stage with Massive Attack before at their Tsunami Benefit gig in Bristol back in February 2005.

Notable Quotes

3D on his interpretation of Damon's lyrics for Saturday Come Slow – "Damon wrote this about Bristol and the sort of limestone caves of the south-west land. 'One sound that the believers understand': you know, it's definitely about Bristol and Damon interpreting our relationship with our own land. It's almost, like, you know, frontiers and medieval times, when the land was divided into counties, this being the county of Bristol and his view of it. And also I think his experience of passing through it and of places like Glastonbury or Devon." [The Independent – February 2010]

3D on on working with Damon Albarn in early 2009 on Saturday Come Slow – "It changed everything up. It was a different energy and a different environment. We started to strip everything back and build it back up again. That feels like the start of what the album is now." [The Daily Telegraph – Janurary 2010]

Saturday comes slowDo you love me?Do you love me?Or is there nothing there?

In the limestone cavesIn the south west landsOne time in the kingdomBelieve is on the sand

Saturday comes slowDo you love me?Do you love me?Or is there nothing there?

Saturday comes slowDo you love me?Do you love me?Do you love me?Do you love me?Or is there nothing there?

Promo Video

The Guantanamo prisoner, Ruhal Ahmed, who was the main subject of the short film produced to promote Saturday Come Slow.

The video for Saturday Come Slow was similar to the other videos produced for the Helgilnad album in being less of a traditional music video and more of a experimental short film.

In this case, this particular video was shot inside Cambridge University’s anechoic chamber – a soundproofed room that dampens all background noise to create total silence. Within the eerily muffled chamber, Ruhal Ahmed, a former Guantanamo detainee, recounts his experiences at the hands of the interrogation squad. For over two years, he was held and questioned repeatedly, often left in isolation for days on end whilst excruciatingly loud music was piped into the room. Ahmed’s recollections are interspersed with scientific commentary on the effects of extreme noise on the human body, and audio clips of Saturday Come Slow set to sound-related animations created by London design studio APFEL.